An electronic program guide (EPG) provides scheduling information for programs shown on different channels in a television network. For example, the EPG provides the specific programs, and possibly detailed information regarding the programs, that will appear on each channel throughout the day or days. As more people begin to consume scheduled programming on multiple devices, including devices that may have limited computing resources such as mobile phones, set-top boxes, smart televisions and other computing devices, distributing EPG information may be problematic. The EPG information may be relatively large, with details of all programs appearing on all channels for a period of time, such as two weeks. In order to limit the amount of EPG data that needs to be transmitted to and stored at the device, the EPG data may be downloaded in sections.
While downloading only portions of the EPG data may reduce the amount of data required to be transmitted at once, it may provide an undesirable user experience as it may still take a relatively long time to retrieve the EPG data. The EPG data may be periodically updated causing new EPG data to be downloaded.
It would be desirable to distribute EPG data to computing devices in a manner that provides an improved, or at least acceptable, user experience.